Counselor
by Cluttered Ticking
Summary: "James stared obstinately straight ahead, pretending he didn't hear a word they were saying. The reason for this shutdown of all expression probably had to do with the fact that he was forcibly seated in a room with a shrink and Lily Evans." Lily's newest scheme to save humanity somehow involves James Potter and her going to "couple counseling." They're not even friends. J/L S/OC
1. Prologue

Counselor  
By: Me! (Cluttered Ticking)  
DISCLAIMER: JK Rowling owns all you recognize.

**PROLOGUE**

She had the kind of face you forgot easily.

Lily hated herself for it. She hated that they'd been going to school together for four years and she couldn't remember her face. She just knew her name—Jenna Isabel Wright. A pretty name; one she knew only because it had been passed around the halls and mumbled in ears for weeks.

Not because Lily _knew_ her.

Her story wasn't even spectacularly tragic-except for her ending. It was an ending to disgrace her smiles, her quirks, her talents. An ending that mocked the joy of her life, marred her memory. In the end, she could be summed up in two sentences.

Her name was Jenna Isabel Wright. She killed herself.

A fifteen year old girl was so overlooked, so ignored, so hated, so sad, that she decided to avada herself. She'd aimed in a mirror, and the curse rebounded and hit her square in the chest.

Her best friends and fellow fifth years were stunned. They scrambled for answers, to pin meaning to something so senseless. Why did she hate herself? Why did no one see it—see it before they saw her chocolate hair splayed on the stone floor? It was torture, it was regret.

Lily couldn't tear her mind off of it. Questions prickled, but as soon as immediate answers arose, new questions came to take their places. It was endless, it was painful. How many of these girls and boys with smiles on their faces did Lily not know? _Why_ didn't she know them? Wasn't it her moral duty to let people know that all was not awful and dark or-or something like that?

If she had been Jenna's friend, would she be dead by now? Was Lily meant to be her guardian angel, the person sent to make her realize how lovely she truly was?

Why did _no one_ seem to know that Jenna Isabel Wright had been suffering inside, withering, dying, decaying... Why did no one notice when she traded her smiles for dull replacements, when she sobbed into sheets and bathroom stalls? How many times did she reach out? How many times did unseeing eyes overlook her, just skipping right over her as if she wasn't there? As if _no one_ was there?

Lily rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into the soft material of the pale blue couch, breathing shallowly as tears stung at her eyes. Oh, Merlin, she couldn't take this. A warm hand sought hers, but she shook it off, not wanting the comfort. A shiver was followed by a sob that sent an aching pain through her chest.

It hurt, this regret. It shook every conceited, smug place in her body. Head Girl? What kind of Head Girl was she if she couldn't even tell that a 15 year old girl—a Gryffindor, no less!—was suffering? Her, the girl who fancied herself perceptive and kind?

There was panic growing in her chest, empathy rising when it was all too late. Jenna was gone; her tears were for no one.

She cried them anyway.

* * *

_So, on that note, I'm American. And I've got this thing about not swearing in AMERICAN, but if it's British then I... use it flagrantly. So, I've got a T rating only because of the language I'm using that I don't even understand, but it's for some reason part of my writing vocabulary._

_It's not even totally British. I throw in American here and there—I'm pretty sure I haven't read Brits saying things like "freaking" and "flipping" and whatnot. Maybe I'm wrong. But that's a story for another day._


	2. Chapter 1

Counselor  
By: Me! (Cluttered Ticking)  
DISCLAIMER: JK Rowling owns all you recognize.

**CHAPTER 1  
**

James stared obstinately straight ahead, pretending he didn't hear a word they were saying.

The reason for this shutdown of all expression probably had to do with the fact that he was forcibly seated in a room with a shrink and Lily Evans. Oh, Evans? She was _happy_ to be there, sipping her tea and smiling that sweet, polite smile she was so good at.

He'd been justly confused about the summoning. Operation PANDA had been executed smoothly, and all blame had been successfully pinned on some rowdy, idiot fourth years. Had the gits gone and confessed like the sissies Sirius had accused them of being?

When James had received the note, his mind was already putting together a revenge plan when he actually _read_ the note and saw that he was needed in a Room 220.

He'd never heard of a Room 220...! And that meant it wasn't detention.

He'd smiled in confusion at the girl sitting behind the desk because she didn't look like she was that much older than him, and then he saw Lily and though it was all beginning to make relative sense. Head Duties, yeah?

No.

It was _not_ Head Duties. It was a _shrink session_—no, it was a _tattling_ session. A new form of torture Lily had developed to further incense him against her now that he couldn't bash her in public any longer. Lily got to complain to not even a shrink, but a girl _studying_ to be a shrink, and James...

Well, what _was_ James going to do? He was reverting to silence because he wasn't sure he wanted to hurt the feelings of the obviously sensitive shrink (whose name he had purposely not listened to, and whose name plate on her desk he had pointedly avoided); after all, it wasn't _her _fault Lily had gone and wrapped them all up in this, was it?

Maybe it was. Maybe Ms. Shrink should have gone into a much less annoying profession like owning a—a flower shop. Yeah, that suited her. Lots of lovely flowers to tend to instead of people to advise when she had no idea what she was talking about—

"James, please try to cooperate," Ms. Name-less plead, and James looked up from his shoelaces to glimpse her blue eyes. She was rather pretty. James's eyes fell. Not pretty enough to make her less _annoying_. "From what I've heard, you and Lily have a very... extreme relationship."

"Extreme?" James echoed disbelievingly before he could stop himself, and then he turned to Lily. "Is that what you called it? _Extreme_?"

If anyone had asked _him_, he would have gone along the lines of explosive, passionate, incredible, mind-blowing... You know, moderately positive words that could still describe their destructive relationship perfectly.

Lily rolled her green eyes heavenward. "I'm sorry, Ms. Shayna—"

Ms. _Shayna_? She wanted them to call her by her first name with a lame "miss" in front like some-some-

Well, James didn't really know what that was like, but he decided it was very immature. _McGonagall _didn't go around asking her students to call her _Miss Minerva_, now did she? And James was pretty sure that Minerva McGonagall was the most mature woman he'd ever met. So much so that she was hardly a woman. Or human.

He decided then and there that this _Ms. Shayna_ should take a leaf or two out of McGonagall's book.

"—I didn't realize James would be _immature_ about this," Lily said, and although she was looking at Miss. Shayna, her words were daggers poised directly at James.

He deflected them with relative ease in his mind. Or, at least, he tried to. "_I'm_ the one who's immature?" He echoed, shocked. "You're the one who needs a shrink to sort yourself out! Look, Evans, if you have a problem with me, then let's keep things between _you_ and _me_—or do you actually feel like you need to hide behind—behind _her_?" James shot Ms. _Shayna_ a derisive look before turning back to a defiant Lily. "Trust me, Evans: she's not going to be able to hold you back when you try to sock me in the jaw."

"Alright, that's _enough_," Lily said, conveniently right when he was done. "It is not the natural turn of events for me to _sock you_ in the _jaw,_ alright?"

"Four times, Evans. _Four_."

"And I've had hundreds of opportunities to do it a lot more, alright?" Lily turned to the shrink. "I'm not usually violent—it's just—just _him_."

James shut down again. This was _not_ going to be the happy-go-lucky therapy treatment they wanted, that was for sure; James was not one to be forced into doing anything that he didn't have good reason to follow. Until they pulled out the big guns, he wasn't going to cooperate.

Big guns include nothing short of: crucio-ing his best friends, threats of spilling Remus's secret, the murder of another student, the physical harm of Lily Evans (not that he'd ever admit it), the _emotional_ harm of Lily Evans, and last but not least: common sense.

So, in order for him to cooperate, they'd either have to crucio Sirius (unlikely), threaten the death of a random student (very unlikely), have Lily express her deep, innermost feelings and frustrations and would thus cry (_hopefully_ unlikely), or give him a good reason (impossible-there was no reason for he, James Potter, to see a _shrink_.)

"It's... understandable," Ms. Shayna said delicately.

James was shocked out of silence by the absurdity once more-and he'd only been committed for about two seconds. Darn. "_Understandable_? How in Merlin's name is this _understandable_?" He gestured wildly between Lily and himself. "We've been at each other's throats since _first. Year. _That's not understandable at all!"

"It is once you take in account of your personalities," She said.

"You met me five minutes ago!" James sputtered.

"And a telling five minutes it has been," She said seriously.

James scoffed.

Ms. Shayna was pretending not to notice his rude scorn and was continuing on as if he was politely interested. "I could share my current theory with you, but it probably will have some holes in it, and it may not be entirely accurate."

James scoffed again.

"Yes, please," Lily smiled at her.

"Well," She said carefully. "There are a lot of factors take in. Such as, you're both very attractive," She said. Lily looked awkward at this analysis, and James ran his hand through his hair to emphasize said attractiveness. "And from what I've been told in your personal files, you, James, have had a history of harassing Lily into going on dates with you."

"Since when is it legal for you to keep a _personal_ file on students?" James was abruptly outraged.

"Hold up, that suggests I actually _went_—I always said no. He just asked me repetitively."

_Repetitive_? He had been _anything _but repetitive! He had come up with various, various, _various _ways of asking Lily Evans on dates, ranging from gigantic (human-sized) bouquets of roses delivered in the middle of Transfiguration, to hanging her slimy, (ex) best friend upside down in front of a laughing audience.

She was ignoring James. "Yes, I know," She nodded at Lily. James went back to fuming. His father was going to hear about this one—! Personal files—?! How much did they _know_? Was James _that _disruptive with Lily that someone actually wrote it down for future shrinks to examine?!

"On top of this physical attraction you two feel for each other—"

"I am _not_—"

James and Lily cut off abruptly and glared at each other.

Ms. Shayna went on, ignoring their words in unison. "—there is the mental attraction. Both of you are very, _very_ smart, and from this personality profile of James put together—"

"_Personality profile_?" James sputtered.

"—James enjoys the mental stimulation of arguing. Judging by the fact that you have been bickering for over six years now, it would seem that Lily enjoys it as well."

"Hold on, I want _answers_—why do you know so much about me?" James asked indignantly.

Yes, he liked to argue. What about it? And, well... It _was _insanely attractive for a girl to fight back, to push back while he usually flattened everyone else he came in contact with, with the rare exception. But those exceptions (McGonagall, Sirius Black, Dumbledore...) only included _one _pretty girl. It only made sense that once upon a time, he'd made the mistake of trying to date her!

"If I liked it, would I be here?" Lily asked.

"I will not be ignored!" James raged.

"James, the reason we have summoned you here isn't to upset you or to annoy you—we are here to genuinely fix the rift between you and Lily. Wouldn't you _like_ to be friends, to understand each other?"

Well, that would be bloody nice, her finally _seeing_ him—but he doubted _Miss Shayna_ would be able to fix something he'd been trying and Lily'd been fighting since day one. Their relationship was so far gone—where it had once been a charming and adorable puppy that had a fondness of biting people, it was now a brutal, damaged, bleeding thing with infected wounds and made such piteous noises that it was just easier to not look at it; to just pretend it was the charming young pup it had once been.

"Impossible," James said bitterly, pondering the growling, wounded puppy he'd conjured up in his mind to represent him and Lily.

"Yes, it is." She agreed. "Without your cooperation, this will never work. But Lily here has come forward and demonstrated that she wants things to work between you two. Would it be so bad to try a little as well?"

"What makes you think that you can solve our problems?" James demanded.

She smiled. "I won't. That's for _you_ to do. The mode of therapy that I found most helpful in the past—"

James scoffed. How much experience could she possibly have?

"—is to let the patient do all of the talking. With your cooperation, I won't have to talk at all. It will be just between you and Lily with me refereeing."

"Seriously," James shook his head, grinning sardonically. "You're _not_ going to be able to keep her from trying to kill me—she's _seriously _unpredictable-"

"I'm not that bad!" Lily cried out, evidently offended by his savage portrayal of her.

"I can handle Lily," She smiled, winking at the redhead. "James, this isn't some quack science. All we're going to do here is talk."

"I'm 17," James glared at her sullenly. "I know how to think for myself."

"This isn't about thinking—this is _communicating_." She said.

James merely shook his head. James Potter did _not_ go to shrinks.

* * *

"James!"

Since when was he _James_ and not Potter? James shook his head to clear his head; it didn't matter what Lily called him. She wasn't going to manipulate him as shamelessly as she had for the past seven years. And she called _him_ the bully? True, she used him to help defenseless first years and house elves, where as he beat up teenage boys and humiliated grown adults...

But they _deserved_ it. She could dish out all the mercy she wanted; James had a few orders of justice to fill. And just because she didn't think he was the best guy in the world didn't mean she had the right to tell him what to do!

A shrink—did she really think he was that screwed up? Or had she just gotten extraordinarily petty? Maybe she was _trying_ to humiliate him...

"James!" A small hand fell down on his shoulder, even as he made his speedy yet dignified gettaway, and James immediately froze, and she stumbled into him. Oh, that felt too good, that single moment of contact. And it hardly counted as contact; she'd touched him through his clothes.

"Sorry," She immediately apologized.

Screw dignified. He should have bolted all the way to the Gryffindor common room_—_because he was _screwed_.

James spun around to face the redhead, and his breath caught in his throat like it was the first time he was seeing her. Why was she so _pretty_, with all that red hair and those big, brilliant emerald eyes? He would have killed someone to win over Lily Evans if it would have actually _worked_.

"What do you want?" James demanded impatiently.

"I want to explain," Lily bit her lip.

"Don't bite your lip—you'll chew it right off," James ordered.

"...I'll bite my lip if I want to," Lily pointedly dug her top teeth into her soft, full bottom lip, and James's fists clenched as his irritation flared.

"And I'll talk to you when I want to," James retorted. He made to spin around, but Lily stopped him with just her voice; he was wary of her touching him again.

"Wait, James, it's really not what you think! This has to do with Head Duties," Lily said.

"..._How_? Does Dumbledore want to find out if we're certifiably sane enough to do our jobs?" James demanded waspishly.

"It's not about our sanity James, jeez. You're so _suspicious_..." Lily sighed.

"Are you going to explain, or are you going to stall all day? Because Padfoot and I were going to do something _really cool_," James said, and he reflexively grinned in memory of their plans involving a pack of gummy bears and a spell they'd found in the Forbidden section of the Library.

"You mean something incredibly stupid," Lily retorted.

"Hey, you don't even know what we're going to do," James defended.

"I don't want to know," Lily narrowed her eyes at him till the green in her eyes were barely visibly.

James faced a moment of indecision—what would most annoy her: telling her when she pretended not to want to know, or not telling her anything when she clearly wanted to? His own desire to tell her won out, and he leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin.

"Okay, we're going to do a simple enlarging charm on a gummy bear," James confessed.

"That's it?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Oh, not even close," James smirked. "We're going to bring it to _life_—and it's going to have a bit of an appetite, if you know what I mean."

"Why would you ever do that?" Lily demanded, horrified.

"It's going to be the most _epic_ evening snack in the world," James declared heatedly. "I mean, it will be man versus candy! We'll _both_ be trying to eat each other!"

"You could get hurt!"

"Uh, Lily, please," James leaned back and rolled his eyes, running his hand through his hair artfully. "I'm James Potter. I think I can take a few hundred pounds of jelly."

Lily's face screwed up in irritation. "You're so annoying!" She folded her arms stiffly. "If you get eaten, don't come running to me."

"I won't be able to. I'll be inside the gummy bear's stomach," James reminded.

"Are you trying to make me sick?" Lily demanded.

"You worry about me that much?" James smirked.

"Wha—no!" Lily gasped, evidently panicked. "Er, I mean—I just hate gummy bears," She said quickly. "Like, a lot—and why do you know about them?"

"Remus found one in a store in London when he was visiting his muggle cousins," James dismissed quickly. "Good thing he did; who knows what pointlessly destructive thing Sirius and I would have done if a pack of gummy bears hadn't come along?"

"Is Remus going to be refereeing?" Lily asked, pained and trying to hide it, of which she was doing a poor job.

"Of course not," James said cheerfully. "He thinks it's a stupid idea and will have nothing to do with us!"

"That's because it _is_ a stupid idea!" Lily insisted. "You're going to—hey, wait, we were talking about something," She realized.

"What are you talking about? No we weren't—" James paused, and he suddenly remembered the shrink's office, and he immediately scowled. "Oh, right. You dragged me to a shrink's office against my will."

"She's a counselor, James, _honestly..._" She corrected irritatedly.

"And you're _still_ stalling!" James accused.

"I'm not stalling!" Lily gasped. "It's just really hard to explain, and it's like you're trying to make me feel like an idiot. I don't appreciate it," Lily said coldly.

"Oh. Well now you know what it's like to live with _you_." James shot back.

"I have an ulterior motive, James," She said icily. "I'm not just doing it do annoy you."

"Really?"

"Oh, shut up. It's for the greater good, believe it or not. I was just thinking that if everyone could see a counselor, things would be better around here," Lily said delicately. "So, let's spread the word by going together."

"They'll just think someone's forcing us to," James pointed out. "For the exact same reason as what you just said—except they'll think the teachers are making us do it."

"Maybe we could pretend it worked," Lily suggested.

James snorted. "And lie to them? That's a pretty big thing to ask of a respectable Head Boy, you know."

"Even if it _was_ lying, James, you're hardly a respectable Head Boy," Lily accused.

Well. That stung. "What have I done to be ..._un_respectable?" James demanded, stumbling only slightly on the opposite of respectable. "I've been a good boy since I got my letter!"

"Oh, sure, whenever you're not having epic desert battles with gigantic gummy bears you've brought to life with black magic!"

James's eyes widened, and he looked around wildly in paranoia. "Shh—don't say it so loud!"

"Real respectable, James," She said dryly.

Ah, there she went again. Saying his name. "Before I forget, if I don't show up at the Heads Commons, go tell Remus to go find us. He'll know how."

"Well, before you make your gigantic, man-eating gummy bears, you better show up to this meeting I'm holding," Lily said, sticking out her chin in defiance.

"What meeting?" James demanded, aghast.

"Head Commons, tonight at 7. Bring everyone," Lily commanded imperiously.

"Who is _everyone_?"

"Oh, you know—all of your friends?" Lily rolled her eyes.

"I've got a lot of friends, Evans," James reminded irratededly.

"Oh, fine. Bring Sirius, Peter, and Remus," Lily said.

"7 o'clock is pretty inconvenient..." James said it almost threateningly.

"I'm sure you and Sirius will find the time," She responded heartlessly.

"You're affecting my fragile sleep pattern," James tried. "Since you're cutting into my snack, we're going to do it later, and I just might fall asleep during Potions tomorrow and blow up my cauldron. You're paying for the surgery, Evans. It's going to be positively _ghastly_ what happens to my face."

"So... You could, you know, not do something incredibly stupid and just go to sleep instead," Lily said.

James's jaw dropped. "_That_'s why you're holding the meeting at 7? To keep Sirius and I from doing something stupid?"

"James, you're thinking too hard about this," Lily rolled her eyes. "Just come to the meeting."

"Why should I?" He demanded childishly.

"Because I said so," Lily glared at him. Then she brushed right past him, strutting down the long corridor ahead of him. James watched her go, knowing she could feel his eyes, and also knowing that it made her very uncomfortable. Good. James needed all the payback he could get—

Because he was going to a stupid meeting at 7 o'clock tonight in the Head Commons. That stupid ginger had him wrapped around her little finger.

Rest assured, however, giant, man-eating gummy bears _would_ be fought and eaten tonight. Not even Lily Evans could stop that.

* * *

_Now you all have a REAL taste for what this story is going to be like._


End file.
